UPDATE: Despite reports that the suspects have been arrested in Tachileik this morning. Police confirmed at 11:50am that the three arrestees were not the suspects in this murder case.
The search for the three remaining suspects in the murder of Khon Kaen karaoke bar girl Warisara Klinjui, 23, has continued in Myanmar. Police suspect the trio is working at a spa in Tachileik, a border town connected to Thailand’s Chiang Rai province.
The suspects they are looking for are Preeyanuch Nonwangchai, 24, Kawita Ratchada, 25, and Apiwan Sattayabundit, 28.
Preeyanuch and Kawita are wanted for premeditated murder and concealing a body while Apiwan is thought to have been in the car where the murder occurred.
The two other suspects, Wasin Namprom, 22, and Jidarat Promkhun, 21, are in custody.
The bar girl’s body was found cut in two and hidden in garbage bags and plastic bins in a Khon Kaen forest last Thursday. The motive for the murder is thought to be related to her being a police drug informant. It has been reported that information she gave to police landed Preeyanuch’s husband in jail. Both the suspect and her husband are said to be crystal methamphetamine dealers.
Tachileik Police led a team of 15 officers to search the unnamed spa in Myanmar to try and locate the women. A search of the spa, reportedly leased to a Thai national, did not reveal the suspects. The owner and eight workers at the spa were taken in for questioning, reported Bangkok Post.
The workers said the three suspects were at the spa from Thursday to Sunday.
Meanwhile, Thai social media pages are fascinated by the case, publishing rumors and forming theories about the three suspects, especially Preeyanuch, who is pinned as the person who killed and dismembered the victim while the others may have been accomplices.
Some of the unconfirmed social media activities of the suspects went viral online and were picked up by social media. One of them include an alleged Line conversation between Preeyanuch and a Thai person working for a Myanmar spa on May 24, the day after the murder. In the conversation, Preeya sent her photos to request a job.
Above: The conversation allegedly between suspect Preeyanuch Nonwangchai and the spa operator in Myanmar was published by Facebook page E-Jan.
The other was a horrific Facebook status allegedly written by Kawita that: “We were going to smash them into fine pieces, but Preaw [Preeyanuch] said it was a waste of time. F*ck, now I’m doomed too.”
Coconuts reached out to police in Khon Kaen and Myanmar, but they were unwilling to comment on the headline-making case.
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